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This 16-Year-Old Got a Perfect ACT Score

A teenage academic phenom from Monroe, Louisiana has made national headlines recently for an accomplishment many young black males his age never get the chance to achieve.

According to the USA Today newspaper, Darius Washington (pictured), 16, just took the ACT college entrance exam and received a 36, which is a perfect score. It is very rare for high school students to get a flawless score on the ACT test. However, the Neville High School student is not the average teenager.

Washington checked his results on the test online around midnight on Monday, November 13, 2017. He did not expect to score perfectly on the ACT and was surprised by his performance. The bright young man told the Monroe News-Star newspaper that his father and mother were very proud of him upon learning about his achievement.

Washington’s mother and aunt proudly shared the great news on social media. Neville High School’s Assistant Principal Whitney Martin said in an interview with the Monroe News-Star newspaper that she was not shocked by Washington’s perfect score on the ACT. However, she believed in him because she knew he was a great student.

“We are not surprised, but we are very proud,” Martin told the Monroe News-Star newspaper in her interview.

Washington’s peers were also very proud of their classmate for accomplishing his fantastic feat. He had taken the test multiple times before and offered his fellow students advice on how to be successful. Washington said that overly stressing about taking the test is not conducive to succeeding.

“Manage your time wisely because if you run out of time that directly affects your score. If you don’t get to questions, then you can’t answer them,” Washington told the Monroe News-Star newspaper in an exclusive interview.

This amazing young man and honors student is on pace to graduate for high school early. He plans to attend University of Louisiana at Monroe so that he can study computer science.